New Bird Disease in Canada's Arctic

http://www.duckjunkies.com/index.php/In-The-Know/new-bird-disease-in-canadas-arctic.html

David Kok In The Know

OTTAWA — January 24th, 2011

A new bird disease has arrived in Canada's Arctic, one so lethal it can kill thousands of ducks in a dense colony in a lightning-fast outbreak.

Eider ducks stricken with avian cholera can die so fast that they remain upright on their eggs, eyes open. Some fall out of the sky, dead. Others survive unharmed, surrounded by corpses.

Now Carleton University and Environment Canada will get more than $500,000 to study the disease — which birds get it, how it spreads, why some survive, and how it arrived in the Arctic after decades of existing farther south.

FULL STORY BY TOM SPEARS, THE OTTAWA CITIZEN